Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

 My name is Herold White. I am a rabbi. I have been on the faculty at Georgetown for forty years. I have been a member of campus ministry. I was the first rabbi appointed to a full-time position at a Catholic university. I have been very involved in interreligious dialog and I am very impressed what I have seen in terms of interreligious dialog here in Turkey. The best part of trip for me was not seeing the sights so much as being exposed to people, and particularly the fact that we ate with families. I appreciated what I saw because it was what I remembered as a child. My grandparents lived with us. I saw respect for the elderly which I don’t always see in the United States. Older people in the United States are shunted off to institutions what is considered to be good care. Well that was not what I saw here, and that was deeply appreciated.

Probably the most significant thing is the Gulen foundation and what it does. That’s a model for United States. For business people and corporations in the United States; I don’t know anything other than the Gates Foundation and several other foundations which could equal the breadth of this. Because not only does it involve education, it involves medical schools, it involves education from kindergarten all the way through university; and it was truly remarkable to see that. The trip was wonderful. Ali and Zerin and everyone were wonderful. I traveled extensively and I have been the object of hospitality and but this was superb so I am very appreciative of the trip. I am very glad I came. Ali has invited me at least ten times. I was never able to make it, and when he said that come in August, people said don’t go, it is too hot. Yes it was hot but the weather didn’t matter because what mattered was the quality of what I experienced. So thank you! I will long remember, and I will carry the message of what you are doing here back to the United States, because I believe that this is a model, and it is a model where there is a symbiotic relationship even though church and state are separated. There is that relationship that does exist and it also shows that as far as the Middle East is concerned, you can have compatibility between religious practices. Because people have not lost their religiosity or there further for religion but that can exist in a very compatible way with the secular world as well…